But I don't get... You say murder is murder, but you keep saying "But they were just kids"... It seems to me that, I know, you don't condone it , but that you're trying to make it seem less... how do I say this... well... not as bad as it actually is

I know what Vicky feels like she feels same as me actually! It was a horrible thing that happened to James and no-one condones it. The comments on You Tube sicken me also, these two boys took a life but it isn't right to want to take their lives to punish them. That's my opinion anyway. They should have spent longer in prison.

But I don't get... You say murder is murder, but you keep saying "But they were just kids"... It seems to me that, I know, you don't condone it , but that you're trying to make it seem less... how do I say this... well... not as bad as it actually is

What I mean by 'But they were just kids" is that if you killed them then, you would have been just as guilty as they were. I am whole-heartedly against the death penalty and feel they should have had a longer sentence. If they were you're children you wouldn't want them put to death.

I've never said I'm pro-death penalty, because I don't believe in it. But if my kids would have commited murder, I'd let them spent the rest of their lives in prison. I'd want nothing to do with them anymore if they commited the same murder on someone as those boys did on James.

Hmmm, well, what "bugs" me most (as questions and thoughts go) is why they did it. I mean, for me personally, the motive someone has to commit a crime often changes the way I see how they should be "dealt with" (punishment, education, putting the person away for the rest of their lives).

I would say that usually there are some major type of categories why people do things that are considered bad (or even evil) in the eyes of others: They are "unable" to feel the pain they cause (sociopathic personality), they have a financial (or otherwise base motive), or they actually commit the crime out of "frustration".

To explain what I mean by that... If I imagine that as of now all people that I know would start to treat me "without respect", they would just not care about me, keep pushing me around, not taking note of my wishes, completely ignore if I do things I'm not supposed to, and that would go on and on and on... At first I would think it's just strange, of course, but after a while I would feel "unloved", that people do this to hurt me, that nobody gives a shit about me, that I'm not worth anything, in short, I'm completely alone. Yes, I think that, after a (hopefully long, long) while, I might resort to do something real (real!) bad, maybe to vent off my anger and to show them that I do matter, that I'm not "nobody", that they should take care of me. And given that I am 32 and those two were just 10 (and had even less mental capabilities and means to understand what's going on), I could think of the situation like this:

One of the two kids is "stuck" with a mother who uses (legal) drugs to "get on" with her life, and who cannot really take care of him (I think in the documentary it said he was often seen being out "after hours", prowling around, which to me suggests that he was "given a free pass", something that speaks of a high degree of negligence on the part of the mother). In his surroundings, he doesn't have someone to "go to" if he needs to, until a friend shows up (didn't it say that the two of them only met a couple months before the crime?). But as that friend also doesn't live in a "good home", they can (for a while) soothe each other's need for companionship but not for guidance and compassion. I would figure that soon after they met, they started to "share" in each other's misery, but not by talking about how they feel (as that would reveal their weakness, for which men aren't famous of), instead they tell each other what they would like to do to "the others" to "pay them back" (revenge is such a "global motive and theme" in our society that I think it's safe to assume that those two had "heard of it") for their bad treatment in life. At first (maybe for a couple months) they are content with just "talking about it" (getting more and more wild in their thoughts, like maybe setting a building on fire or destroying a really valuable object), but as the satisfaction of that starts to wane, eventually they talk about "doing it". Why they then chose to commit such a "inhumane" crime I cannot say, but I think that it seems more likely to me they committed it not out of a "base motive". Whether or not they were (and then still would be!) sociapaths, I also cannot say, but that, to me, would be the really important question. If they are then, yes, they should be locked away for the rest of their lives. If they are not then I think that they can be redeemed.

Oh, and for those of you who like Harry Potter, have you ever considered this (and I know it's a "far fetched" comparison, as it is neither "real" nor was it actually described in the books, but still...): what would have happened to Albus Dumbledore when Gellert Grindelwald came his way had he not had a little sister to take care of? Don't you think that the pair of them would have "talked themselves into" trying to "rule the world"? And on the way, there would of course have been some "crimes" to commit, but who cares...

Basically, I think that if two people who feel they are treated "poorly" by life get together and only have themselves to talk to, there is always the danger of "losing perspective" to the amount that they start doing "horrible" things (they find some twisted way to explain to themselves as "just" or "necessary"). And unfortunately, nobody took care of these two 10-year olds when they would have needed it most.

Honestly, while I do think that whoever commits a crime is "to be held responsible" for it, I think that in this case I am surprised that nobody ever blamed the mothers/families of the two; I think that had they been more "integrated" into a "normal social environment" it would have been much harder for them to "get there" (in which case then I would probably have much less scruples in sending them to prison for life).

Also, witness saw him being "kicked in the ribs" etc, etc, and didn't do anything? Wtf kind of witnesses were these people.

I don't think 10 year olds should be given the death penalty. They're 10. Their brain is no where near fully developed, but clearly something isn't clicking right. They need severely intensive psychiatric analysis/counselling/detainment.